Autumn 2009 Catalogue 4 pdfing:1 - Yale University Press

Art 17John Singer Sargent, Atlantic Sunset, c. 1876–78.Private collection.Ships and the sea throughthe eyes of one of the mostremarkable painters of theearly twentieth centurySarah Cash is the Bechhoefer Curatorof American Art at the CorcoranGallery, where she has curated showsincluding Encouraging AmericanGenius; Norman Rockwell’s FourFreedoms; and The Gilded Cage:Views of American Women.Richard Ormond is director of theSargent catalogue raisonné projectand the artist’s great-nephew. He wasformerly director of the NationalMaritime Museum, London.October192 pp. 280x230mm.30 b/w + 100 colour illus.ISBN 978-0-300-14360-7 £30.00*Sargent and the SeaSarah Cash and Richard OrmondAs a young man the American painter John Singer Sargent(1856–1925) was passionate about the sea and deeply knowledgeableabout ships and seafaring. Between the ages of 18 and 23 he started hiscareer as a professional painter with a remarkable range of maritimeworks that form the subject of this exhibition and book. The key worksare the two versions of the Oyster Gatherers of Cancale, painted in 1878on the northern coast of Brittany in France, and the group of studiesand sketches around them.The authors relate Sargent’s freely handled marine drawings, large andsmall, to his watercolours, oil sketches and finished oil paintings ofmarine subjects. The works demonstrate his transition from a plein-airpainter to a tonalist exploring interiors and urban scenes. Alsopresented is a unique scrapbook, held by the Metropolitan Museum ofArt, that includes more than 50 drawings and sketches, mostly of seascenes, and postcards and commercial photography of works of art,architecture and tourist views. This scrapbook provides an intimateglimpse at the thoughts and experiences of the young artist on his firstEuropean voyage.Exhibition scheduleCorcoran Gallery, Washington 12/9/09 – 3/1/10The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 14/2/10 – 23/5/10Royal Academy of Arts, London 10/7/10 – 23/9/10Published in association with the Corcoran Gallery, Washington